Norwegian investor KLP blacklists two companies that buy phosphate from occupied Western Sahara:
Oslo (Norway), June 10, 2010: Kommunal Landspensjonskasse (KLP) announced June 1, that it has excluded two new corporations from its investment portfolio, American-Canadian PCS and American-Spanish FMC Corp, for purchasing their raw materials from the occupied Western Sahara, the company indicated Monday in a statement.
“Extraction of natural resources from occupied areas, and especially Western Sahara, was declared illegal by the UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs in 2002,” Jeanett Bergan, manager of responsible investments in KLP Kapitalforvaltning, stated.
With this, KLP, an investor that provides pensions to 333 Norwegian municipalities, 35 other state enterprises and 2300 companies, has so far thrown out four international companies that import phosphate from the occupied territory.
The phosphate deposits in Western Sahara are supposed to have contributed to the occupation in 1975 and have since then provided Morocco with incomes in the billion-dollar range. This industry is taking place without the Sahrawis being consulted and violates human rights, as summarised in the UN evaluation of 2002.
KLP has now excluded the company owned by the large American corporation FMC, which has the longest record of buying phosphate from Western Sahara, since it was colonized by Spain and maintained its purchasing agreements after the Moroccan occupation of the territory.
The other company that KLP now has blacklisted is the American-Canadian Potash Corp (PCS), which has imported fertiliser from Western Sahara at least since 1987.
KLP has previously excluded the two Australian fertiliser companies Incitec Pivot and Wesfarmers because of similar imports. Other Scandinavian investors have also divested themselves of the field.
The UN evaluation of 2002 determined that if the Sahrawi people are not consulted, or if it does not benefit them, the natural resource activity in Western Sahara is in conflict with international law.
source: (SPS)
